Driving along the uneven dirt road from Puerto Cabezas to Sahsa, the first things you notice are the houses. Against the bleak, viridian landscape of the RAAN, the bright orange tarps used as temporary roofing immediately draw the eye, standing out against the felled trees and vast plains. Only the lucky families have plastic tarps protecting their homes from the elements, donated by various governments and humanitarian aid groups. They occasionally bear the logo “USAID: From the American People.” The unlucky families make due with what they can find: the occasional wooden plank, broken metal sheeting salvaged from the wreckage of the storm, and dried palm leaves, all thatched together to form a precarious, temporary shelter. Next to these houses are the vacant frames of wrecked houses, abandoned in the days after the storm by families seeking temporary shelter from neighbors. This is the scene in practically every town on the way to Sahsa, and for someone hoping to understand post-Felix Tasba Pri, it’s a crash course in the daily realities of the residents of the territory.(more…)